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1 April: Gowk Day, the Scottish equivalent to April Fools' Day.
1 April 1245: The death in Scrabster Castle of Gilbert de Moravia (later Saint Gilbert), Bishop of Caithness and the man who founded Dornoch Cathedral.
1 April 1811: The birth near Kirkmichael in Ayrshire of James McCosh, the clergyman and prominent philosopher who became president of Princeton University in the USA.
1 April 1996: Local government in Scotland is reorganised, with the creation of 32 unitary council areas replacing the previous two-tier structure of regions and districts.
2 April 1593: The creation of Marischal College as a second university in Aberdeen by George Keith, the 5th Earl Marischal.
2 April 1820: The Radical Rising or Radical War gets under way in west central Scotland. Its ringleaders are later executed.
2 April 1831: The birth in Edinburgh of David MacGibbon, the architect and a partner in the practice of MacGibbon and Ross, best known today for their comprehensive multi-volume books about Scotland's castles and churches.
3 April 1603: King James VI of Scotland moves south to London to become James I of England. He promises to return every three years, but will return to Scotland just once in the 22 years until his death.
3 April 1723: The death in Edinburgh of George Watson, the chief accountant of the Bank of Scotland who left funds to establish what is now George Watson's College.
3 April 1910: The death in Australia of Catherine Helen Spence the leading author, teacher, journalist, and campaigner for women's rights.
4 April 1406: King Robert III dies in Rothesay Castle after hearing the news of his son James' capture by the English. James therefore succeeds to the throne as James I at the age of 12 and as a prisoner of Henry IV of England.
4 April 1617 : The death in Edinburgh of John Napier, the hugely influential mathematician who invented logarithms, who produced a calculating machine, and who did much to further the interests of the decimal point in mathematics.
4 April 1661: The death at Balgonie Castle in Fife of Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, the professional soldier who became a field marshal in the Swedish army before returning to command the Scottish Covenanter army during the Wars of the Thee Kingdoms.
5 April 1623: The death of George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, the influential Scottish nobleman who founded Marischal College, Aberdeen.
5 April 1820: The "Battle of Bonnymuir", a skirmish between Radical weavers and Government troops near Bonnybridge, sees the end of the Radical War or Scottish Insurrection.
5 April 1902: The collapse of a stand during a Scotland vs England football match at Ibrox Park in Glasgow kills 25 supporters and injures 517 more.
6 April 1320: The Declaration of Arbroath, drafted by Bernard, Abbot of Arbroath, is addressed to the Pope in an effort to have him recognise Robert the Bruce as King of Scotland (and remove the excommunication that followed his murder of the Red Comyn in a church). It defines the relationship between the Scottish King and the Scots people.
6 April 1998: The US Senate approves the celebration of an annual Tartan Day in recognition of the achievements of Scottish Americans.
7 April 1767: the birth in Torphichen in West Lothian of Henry Bell, who would make his name by building the the paddle steamer PS Comet and, in 1812, using it to run Europe's first commercially viable passenger steamboat service on the River Clyde.
7 April 1934: The Scottish National Party is founded as the result of a merger between the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party.
7 April 1968: Racing Driver Jim Clark is killed in a crash at the Hockenheimring racing circuit in Germany.
8 April 1999: Prince Charles, who had previously revealed that he had been a regular visitor to the island since 1987, returns to Berneray to open the 900m causeway linking it to North Uist.
9 April 1139: The second Treaty of Durham is a concluded between King Stephen of England and King David I of Scotland. Under its terms Stephen recognises the independence of Scotland.
9 April 1747: Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, becomes the last person to be executed by beheading in Britain for his part in the 1745 Jacobite uprising.
9 April 1817: The birth in Balfron in Stirlingshire of Alexander "Greek" Thomson, who would become an eminent Glasgow architect.
9 April 1922: The death in London of Sir Patrick Manson, the founding father of tropical medicine.
10 April 1273: Lady Devorgilla of Galloway signs a charter for the establishment of Sweetheart Abbey in memory of her late husband, John Balliol.
10 April 1512: After having three children who die in infancy, Margaret Tudor gives birth to a son, James, who will go on to become King James V.
10 April 1840: The death in Edinburgh of Alexander Nasmyth, the landscape and portrait painter often called the "father of Scottish landscape painting".
10 April 1912 The birth in Paisley of Squadron Leader Archie McKellar, a leading fighter ace during the Battle of Britain.
11 April 1827: The birth in Nairn of James Augustus Grant, later to become an army officer who helped explore eastern equatorial Africa.
11 April 1951: The Stone of Destiny stolen from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950, is left in the ruins of Arbroath Abbey and later returned to London.
11 April 1973: The death of Georgina MacKinnon, who served as chairwoman of Drambuie and did much to popularise the traditional MacKinnon liqueur worldwide.
12 April 1567: The Earl of Bothwell is tried for the murder of Darnley and found not guilty. Few Scots believe the trial to be fair.
12 April 1700: Scottish colonists finally abandon the failed settlement at Darien in Panama.
12 April 1945: The Scottish National Party wins its first parliamentary seat at the Motherwell and Wishaw by-election. It loses it again at the general election six weeks later.
13 April 1596: Walter Scott of Buccleuch frees notorious reiver William Armstrong of Kinmont from Carlisle Castle.
13 April 1719: A small Spanish force, believing itself to be part of a much larger invasion planned for England to return the Jacobites to power, lands in Loch Duich, east of the site of modern Kyle of Lochalsh.
13 April 1892: The birth in Brechin of Sir Robert Watson-Watt, generally regarded to be the "inventor of radar". While not the first to consider the possibilities in this area, he was the first to produce a workable system that turned the theory into a weapon critical to winning World War Two.
14 April 1578: James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell dies, insane, in Denmark's notorious Dragholm Prison.
14 April 1582 : The University of Edinburgh is established by a Royal Charter granted by James VI, making it only the sixth university to be founded in the British Isles, and the fourth in Scotland.
14 April 1736: Efforts to quell a riot by the Captain of the City Guard in Edinburgh, Captain John Porteous, lead to six deaths. Portous is later found guilty of murder.
15 April 1710: The birth in Hamilton of William Cullen, a well known doctor who went on to become an influential academic.
15 April 1865: The birth in Dalry of Walter Wingate, the poet known especially for his children's verse.
16 April 1117: Earl Magnus of Orkney, later St Magnus, is betayed and murdered by his cousin Håkon on the island of Egilsay in Orkney.
16 April 1728: The birth in Bordeaux in France of Joseph Black, the eminent Scottish physicist and chemist, renowned teacher, and practicing medical doctor.
16 April 1746: The Jacobite and Government armies meet at the Battle of Culloden, east of Inverness. For a full account of the final defeat of the Jacobites read our feature page on the battle.
16 April 1953: The Royal Yacht Britannia is launched at John Brown's Clydebank shipyard.
17 April 617: Saint Donan and 52 of his followers are murdered during a raid on their monastery on the Island of Eigg.
17 April 1882: The "Battle of the Braes" takes place on the Isle of Skye over the crofters' refusal to pay their rents until the landowner returns traditional grazing rights. Attempts to serve eviction notices by 50 police are met with violent resistance.
17 April 1892: The death in Toronto of Scottish-born Alexander Mackenzie, the second Prime minister of Canada.
17 April 1895: The first cremation in Scotland takes place, at the Western Necropolis in Glasgow.
17 April 1909: Rival Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic fans riot following the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park.
17 April 1932: The death in France of Sir Patrick Geddes, the noted biologist and botanist, and pioneer in the field of town planning.
17 April 1937: 149,415 fans attend the Scotland vs England football match at Hampden Park, Glasgow: a world record football crowd at the time and an enduring European record for an international match.
18 April 1934: The death of Glasgow businesswoman Kate Cranston, who did much to promote the popularity of tea rooms, and was an important patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
18 April 1939: The death of Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair and a strong supporter of women's rights.
19 April 1390: The death at Dundonald Castle of King Robert II, the son of Robert I's daughter Marjorie and her husband Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.
19 April 1567: James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, although already married, proposes marriage to Mary Queen of Scots with the support of many influential nobles across Scotland. Mary turns him down.
19 April 1824: The death in Greece of the leading poet of the Romantic movement and Greek liberation fighter George Byron, 6th Baron Byron.
20 April 1746: Following his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie flees to Arisaig where he stays for a week.
20 April 1809: The birth in Edinburgh of James David Forbes, the physicist best known for his work on the conduction of heat, and on glaciology.
20 April 1934: The first public meeting of the Scottish National Party is held at the Central Hall in Tollcross in Edinburgh.
21 April 1567: James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, kidnaps Mary Queen of Scots on the edge of Edinburgh and takes her to Dunbar Castle, where he rapes her. They agree to marry.
21 April 1703: A "Company for the Quenching of Fire" is formed in Edinburgh, the ancestor of the modern fire service.
21 April 1746: The City of Glasgow hosts formal celebrations to mark the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden, and awards the Duke of Cumberland the freedom of the city.
21 April 1838: The noted US naturalist, explorer, writer, and geologist John Muir is born in Dunbar.
22 April 1304: King Edward I besieges the last Scottish stronghold holding out against him, Stirling Castle. It surrenders three months later when the food runs out.
22 April 1838: The 703 ton paddle steamer SS Sirius, built in Leith, becomes the first ship to cross the Atlantic entirely powered by steam.
22 April 1869: The death of Patrick Bell, the Church of Scotland minister best remembered as the inventor of the reaping machine, the partial forerunner to today's combine harvester.
22 April 1908: The death near Meigle of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
22 April 2005: The death in London of renowned artist and sculptor Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.
23 April 1124: The death of King Alexander I. He is succeeded by his younger brother, who becomes David I, and the third of the sons of Malcolm III and Margaret to become King of Scots.
23 April 1661: Charles II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey: he had been crowned King of Scotland ten years earlier.
23 April 1733: Construction of the Tay Bridge at Aberfeldy begins when General Wade lays the first stone.
24 April 1558: Fifteen year old Mary Queen of Scots marries fourteen year old Francoise, Dauphin of France in Paris. The wedding is accompanied by an agreement that will unify the crowns of Scotland and France if there are children of the marriage, and hand over the crown of Scotland to France if there are not.
24 April 1633: A royal warrant is issued to Sir John Hepburn to raised a body of men in Scotland for service in France. This regiment becomes known as the Royal Scots.
24 April 1882: The birth in Moffat of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, best remembered as the commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain.
25 April 1058: Malcolm Canmore is crowned Malcolm III at Scone. He becomes the founder of the House of Dunkeld.
25 April 1284: The birth of King Edward II of England, a man who would prove a much less dangerous opponent for the Scots than his father, Edward I, "Hammer of the Scots".
25 April 1710: The birth near Huntly of James Ferguson, the self-taught instrument maker and astronomer.
26 April 1710: The birth near Banchory of Thomas Reid, a philosopher who played an important part in the Scottish Enlightenment.
26 April 1711: The birth in Edinburgh of David Hume, often regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English.
26 April 1898: The birth in Deanston of John Grierson, the father of documentary film making in Britain and Canada.
27 April 1296: Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar, opening the way to his conquest of the country and taking many prisoners, including Andrew Murray and John III Comyn.
27 April 1650: At the Battle of Carbisdale, near Bonar Bridge, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose is defeated with heavy losses by a much smaller Covenanter force under Colonel Strachan. Montrose escapes north-west until he is tricked into captivity at Ardveck Castle, on the shore of Loch Assynt.
27 April 1794: The death of James Bruce, who explored large parts of North Africa and Ethiopia and reached the source of the Blue Nile.
28 April 1742: The birth in Dalkeith of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, the lawyer and politician who became the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom.
28 April 1928: The probably death in New York of Madeleine Smith, the daughter of a prosperous Glasgow family who in 1857 became the defendant in a notorious murder trial.
28 April 1988: The Prince and Princess of Wales open the Glasgow Garden Festival.
29 April 1863: Mary Livingstone, wife of explorer David Livingstone, dies in Africa of dysentery while accompanying her husband's Zambezi Expedition.
29 April 1977: British Aerospace takes over Scottish Aviation.
30 April 1728: The Royal Bank of Scotland agrees to the world's first overdraft when it allows the merchant William Hog to take £1,000 more from his account than he has in it (well over £60,000 in today's money).
30 April 1746: Four days after Bonnie Prince Charlie leaves Arisaig two French naval ships carrying supplies and funds arrive in an effort to help him.
30 April 1940: The French destroyer Maillé Brézé suffers an accidental explosion and sinks in the River Clyde off Greenock with the loss of 25 of her crew.
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